A potential practical approach to reduce Ara h 6 allergenicity by gamma irradiation

Peanut allergen Ara h 6 was isolated and irradiated at 1, 3, 5, or 10 kGy, and a whole peanut protein extract (WPPE) was also treated by irradiation. Alteration in structure of Ara h 6 was characterised by circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, ultraviolet (UV) absorption spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy and SDS–PAGE, and antigenicity was evaluated by immunoblotting and indirect ELISA with anti-Ara h 6 polyclonal antibody. Irradiation induced significant changes in the secondary and tertiary structures of Ara h 6, and the antigenicity of both purified Ara h 6 and WPPE were reduced upon increasing the irradiation doses. Moreover, a good correlation between the loss in α-helix and IgG binding to Ara h 6 was observed. This indicated that irradiation might be an efficient approach to reduce or eliminate peanut allergenicity.